The blogger Justin at Truth Shall Set You Free  argues that Walt Disney’s The Little Mermaid is a perfect introduction to female psychology for young boys. He writes:

… The Little Mermaid contains everything you need to know to understand women. It is exactly the movie you would want to show your sons, and make sure they fully understand its lessons. Which may seem odd at first, because it is usually identified as a girl movie, being, in fact, one of Disney’s big five Princess Movies.

Lisa writes:

I haven’t had time to go back and watch it recently. The Disney movie always turned my stomach, and I didn’t want to have the children in the room when it was playing, but I’ll have to get to it. Hope you get comments to post about that being “all a boy needs to know about women”!

Laura writes:

I have only seen snippets of the movie and find it hard to watch. Perhaps Justin does not mean that it literally offers “everything you need to know to understand women,” but that it offers some insights. He argues a compelling case for that. He writes:

The lesson is clear: a passive and submissive man is bad, the sign of a man under an evil spell. Never must a man let a beautiful woman rule his will. Most importantly, he must seek for goodness of character in a woman, embodied by her devotion and service, rather than superficial beauty.

Of course, in the end, Prince Eric had to destroy the Witch. But notice carefully, his demonstration of bravery and skill while rescuing Ariel did not actually win the girl. In the end, it was her powerful and loving father who had to give her away, to the obviously worthy suitor.

Again, the lesson is clear: receiving a girl’s affection is as easy as showing up and looking good. But winning the approval of the father is the key victory and the final measuring stick.

This is a subtle but highly important lesson for the “older boys” watching the movie, the fathers. As Triton demonstrates, you need to be careful not to push your daughter away with tyrannical behavior. Your daughter needs you to be the patriarch of her life, keeping her safe from the dangers of her own flighty-ness and passionate innocence.

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